Killings of Elderly Women in Paris Attributed to Thierry Paulin (1984–1987)

Between October 1984 and November 1987, at least 18 elderly women were robbed and killed in Paris and its surroundings in a series of attacks that French investigators eventually linked to a single perpetrator through fingerprint evidence. The killings occurred in identifiable waves: October to November 1984, December 1985 to June 1986, and a final cluster in November 1987. Most of the 1984 killings took place in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, though some occurred in neighboring areas. The attacks generally combined robbery of small amounts of cash with violent methods; some victims were beaten, some had their heads placed in plastic bags, and one was forced to drink drain cleaner.

On 5 October 1984, two elderly women were assaulted in Paris. Anna Barbier-Ponthus, 83, died after being beaten and asphyxiated beneath a pillow and was robbed of 300 francs. Germaine Petitot, 91, survived a separate attack the same day but was too traumatized to describe her assailant. Eight more elderly women were murdered in Paris in October and November 1984. A second wave of eight further killings followed between 20 December 1985 and 14 June 1986; police determined through fingerprint evidence that these attacks were carried out by the same individual responsible for the 1984 murders, although that individual had not yet been identified.

Investigators eventually connected the killings to Thierry Paulin, a Paris nightclub performer originally from Martinique who had a prior 1982 conviction, suspended, for robbing an elderly woman at knifepoint. In the final wave of violence, Paulin is alleged to have murdered Rachel Cohen, 79, on 25 November 1987 and, the same day, attacked 87-year-old Berthe Finalteri, whom he suffocated and left for dead. Two days later he strangled Geneviève Germont, his last known victim. Finalteri survived and recovered in time to give police a description of her attacker. On 1 December 1987, a local police inspector recognized Paulin on the street from that description and arrested him. Within days Paulin confessed, implicating his former partner, Jean-Thierry Mathurin, in the earliest attacks.

Paulin was accused of committing 18 murders, though he claimed responsibility for 21, and was jailed to await trial. He never faced that trial: already diagnosed HIV-positive before his arrest, his health declined through 1988, and he died in the hospital wing of Fresnes Prison on 16 April 1989 from complications related to AIDS, including tuberculosis and meningitis. Because Paulin died before any court proceeding against him, the killings attributed to him were never judicially adjudicated as to his individual guilt. Mathurin was later tried for the first nine attacks and murders and convicted as an accomplice, receiving a life sentence plus 18 years without parole; he was released from prison in January 2009.

The case drew wide attention in France and inspired the 1994 film *J'ai pas sommeil*, translated in English as "I Can't Sleep", directed by Claire Denis.